looduskalender.ee

This topic will be dedicated for posting general questions about WTEs.

Other everyday discussions should be directed to the topics which are meant for that purpose. The aim is to make this thread a kind of Frequently Asked Questions -topic where new eagle friends can find first aid to their thirst of eagle knowledge.

We hope that the eagle experts Urmas and Renno will have some time to answer the more complicated questions which require specialist answers.

WTEs have been followed in the live cameras for a few years already*). Urmas believes that those long-time LK members who have followed these cameras have learnt so much about eagles that they can give answers to the more recent members in the most common questions.
Besides that anyone who knows answers may give them, because our real eagle experts are very busy men and don't have time to watch this thread constantly.
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*) This text is written on April 17th 2013 by ame, not by Jo UK.

That is interesting! I have no idea Cam´s light indicator is in the dense forest which is switching cam in and off. In the forest there should be proportionally same amount of light every day. I think the weather is main factor - when days are clear there will be more light and longer broadcast. I haven ´t checked if the cloudy weathers are the same (about 8 min longer broadcast).

Questions and discussion about the "open-beak" breathing seen in WTEs on the nest

Maybe this "mouth breathing" that we see is common, and not related to temperature?
It is tempting to think that a bird breathing through an open beak is panting, and panting happens in hot conditions, but it's not hot where they are. They are sitting still, not exercising. There must be an explanation other than heat. What is it?

Good question! Temperature is not very high here, on days 10-15 degrees. But feathers are good thermal insulation and direct sun shine on eagles so I think the panting is still due to the higher body temperature... but there should be other explanations.

There is a web page somewhere that tells us about the colour codes. I will try to find it, unless someone else can post it before I do?

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a chart showing the colour codes of WTE rings can be found here:
viewtopic.php?p=192939#p192939

- Urmas writes about coloured rings in Estonia here:
http://www.kotkas.ee/ringing/
It seems that the colour code for Estonia is blue-and-white for WTEs, but green for golden eagles. There may also be another ring with colour depending on the year.

Does anybody know how long eaglets stay in the nest? They do their fly-exercises, and sometimes I'm afraid they could jump out of the nest. What would happen then when one of them is on the ground? They cannot fly now. I guess the parent will feed it then anyhow.

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WTEaglets fledge (leave their nest) at the age of about 11 weeks.

I found a German website named http://www.projektgruppeseeadlerschutz.de/
Look under 'Informationen' Möglichkeit zur Individualerkennung,(possibility to recognise individuals) Seeadlerberingung (WTE rings).
I don't know if that is what you are looking for. It is in German, but maybe somebody can translate it in English for you
At the same page you can click on 'Ergebnisse der Farbberingung' (results of the colour ringing).

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about WTEs in Estonia an article on the webpages of Eagle Club:
http://www.kotkas.ee/species/white-tailed-eagle

Depends on ground, if there is a lot of bushes and access is difficult to big bird then adults will not to go and don't feed fallen chick. Also they rather take care on the remain chick in the nest as go down for to feed. But if that is single or are fallen dawn both juveniles, then it is possible in certain conditions.

The ring codes are not easily made accessible, because of some persons are sending intentional false recovery information... Strange, but truth. Therefore there is nowhere such complete list of used codes.
But once presented in Looduskalender, the list of selected codes should be official, there is not all codes of the WtE color ringing programme, but closest ones to eagles feeding place in NW Estonia.
All these match also codes in German Seeadlerprojekte website.

Everyone went to great trouble to find Ringing birds and I just litterally fell over the info it was here all the time.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=34
I thank those of you that gave me links;Liis,Jo,Rionn and anyone I may have left out.
When I was younger I was told many times; "Look before you leap"

Urmas may I ask a question about Osprey and the meaning of TALON ? Is that the same as a toe or a finger in humans.
If an Osprey looses a talon what effect will that have on his ability to fish,please.?

Talons are very important part of Osprey, but they have eight talons. If to loose one, it means 1/8 less ability to catch the fish. Of course, that individual could learn to live successfully with seven talons as well, but you could imagine - if you loose one finger and there is no possibilities to bind it and you need to wash the laundry for example (in traditional way of course) or dig out the potatoes without of any tools...

So most probably there is a damage of the finger also, and possibility to get the infection. Talons of Ospreys are very strong, loosing of one should be caused by seriuos incident, e.g. shooting or trapping, etc... That is not really possible in the webcam nest in Scotland, because female is almost every time guarding the nest.

If the Osprey feels ill, then there could be other damages too, not visible directly, for example pellets of shot in a body. But also some inflammation in finger could cause the injury - I did not watch the webcam from Scotland.
Anyway, 20 years for Osprey means like some 60 for human... in that age appear different problems... I do not believe the cause to be simply the age - she is nesting, fertile and that means with good health in general, at least was in spring.

Hello, Urmas, Renno and other experts -
Any news of the Grand Old Lady of Estonian WTEs, hmmm, "Vanaeit"?
Have Sulli and Kluti been seen this summer?
Any theories about why black stork Raivo is in such a hurry southwards?

There is no new information about WtEs, but as Raivo has no chicks to feed this season, he was fully free to go whenever...
Transmitter of Raivo is a bit old (working from 2006) and data are not so full as during previous years. Therefore the caps in row appear, especially if Raivo stays on place and has no need to fly so much.

We are all so relieved to see Linda and Sulev at their nest, but we have not yet observed mating behaviour, and the nest bowl is not quite ready!

If the sea and the land is still frozen, what sources of food are available to them?
Will the Winter Feeding Ground continue to be supplied until the Spring thaw occurs? I don't know if the closing of the webcam also means that the food supply stops at the same time.

Renno kindly replied to my query by e-mail. He says

here are some open plots on the fields. WTEs need also dead grass for the nests. Last snowy year was same problem spring 2010 but Linda and Sulev found needed dead grass and food. Sea is frozen up to 10km from Linda and Sulev nest and they feed mostly dead animals and most probably fly also to the open sea (their nighbour have been seen coming from the open sea). They will manage concerning food but probably start to breed little later than last year (first egg in 21st March) due to longer spring. But will see.

Renno

a few questions were raised at Juras-Erglis a few days ago. i'll look up and copy those questions here later. hopefully one of our eagle specialists will find time to give answers.

it also came to my mind to post here what ever eagle questions and answers i might find in various places. here's one of them first.

a translation of a news article about Estonia's oldest WTE Vanaeit (Grandmother)
(by Ulvar Käärt in Eesti päevaleht, Thursday March 24, 2011) here:
viewtopic.php?p=95531#p95531

then the Age World Record from: viewtopic.php?p=93094#p93094
i'll quote the text here as well

i have some questions which are loosely connected to Nancy's question.
how and when and where do young WTEs find a pair? at Juras-Erglis nest we have seen two eagles who seem to "play home" there. the other has year 2009-rings and the other seems to be even younger. do WTEs get "engaged" a long time before they actually begin to breed?

do "old" WTE-couples stay together all year round? (and the young pairs?) we saw in the winter feeding camera once how an apparently loving eagle pair was sitting together in a tree in the middle of the winter (it was in January i think).

in the feeding ground there were sometimes 1st winter eaglets who seemed to push adults away from food and the adults didn't seem to get upset about it. on the contrary: instead they seemed to wait patiently their turn. it looked like there was a last summer's eaglet with parents who had taken the whole family there to eat. is it possible that eagle families stay together over winter?...till next spring when parents begin to breed again?
(obviously next spring is the latest when last summers eaglets would be chased away).

a question about the population density of WTEs and WTEs and other big birds was raised at the WTE nest Juras-Erglis nest forum: